Mixed views in the academy: academic and student perspectives about the utility of developing work-ready skills through WIL

Publication Name

Studies in Higher Education

Abstract

Work-integrated Learning (WIL) can be a vehicle for the development of students’ work-ready skills. This paper presents the views of undergraduate business students and academics about the role and perceived importance of work-ready skills in the business curriculum and the perceived role of WIL activities in enabling the development of work-ready skills. A total of 50 business students and 24 academics from a number of faculties across the university participated. While students and academics both agree that a combination of on and off campus WIL activities are most effective for developing work-ready skills, students and academics hold different views to the importance of work-ready skills in the curriculum and the importance of including specific skills such as project planning. These findings have implications for the development of work-ready skills and embedding both WIL and non-WIL activities in undergraduate courses for business school educators and university policy makers.

Open Access Status

This publication is not available as open access

Volume

46

Issue

2

First Page

270

Last Page

284

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1630809